Tag: josiah bunting

As with almost all of these prompts, I have a few candidates, but the first that came to mind was All Loves Excelling by Josiah Bunting. The title comes from the hymn “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” that will get stuck in your head if you listen to it too often (or even just once). And “excelling” is such a wonderful word, along with similar words like “excelsior” and “excellent.”

The book is about a girl who attends an elite college prep boarding school, St. Matthew’s, and the immense pressure that’s placed on her shoulders to do well and get into a good college. It’s written a poetic style that I enjoyed. The book is quite depressing, but it’s meant as a warning to parents not to push their children too hard. I’d recommend it to teens going through the college admissions process or to parents of those teens.